15 x 15: Our Generation
by Platinum Dragoness
Summary: Drabbles of every position pairing combination of the Konoha 12 and sand sibs. yaoi, het, yuri
1. HinataTenten

So, I thought _How many pairing combinations are there for the Konoha 12+sand sibs?_ 105. I have no actual plan of ever finishing all of them. Many of the ones I have done aren't even in the slightest romantic.

Title: "Hinata-Tenten"  
Fandom: Naruto  
Characters: Hinata/Tenten, Neji, Hanabi  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Neji's post timeskip rank  
Word Count: 127  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

Hinata hadn't ever expected to fall for Neji's teammate. Well, she had never expected to fall for anyone but Naruto. But while she admired Naruto, she also idolized Tenten as everything a kunoichi should be. She was strong in combat and in will, beautiful, loud and aggressive when appropriate, but soft and diplomatic when necessary.

When Tenten offered to train with her, Hinata almost fainted. Tenten mentioned it offhandedly while waiting for Neji at the compound, complaining about him being so busy now that he'd made jounin.

Hinata stammeringly accepted the weapons mistress' offer and she lightly replied with something vague about when they were both not on a mission.

Hanabi sniffed at her as she tripped over a tea tray in her hurry to get away.


	2. ChoujiGaara

Title: "Chouji-Gaara"  
Fandom: Naruto  
Characters: Chouji, Gaara  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Chuunin exam preliminaries  
Word Count: 161  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

"Come to dinner at my place."

The redhead from Sand didn't even answer with silence, because it couldn't be called answering.

"You killed the guy who beat me at the chuunin exams. I am now morally obligated, as an Akimichi, to invite you over for a meal. So, would you come over tonight? My mother will cook great, authentic Wind Country dishes, just like your mother made."

Gaara's sand twitched. "She's dead."

"Or she could make foreign food, if you feel like something different. Anything you want."

Yashamaru had always mentioned some specialty of Fire Country, that he thought might be a food. "What is a _donut_?"

"Donuts? They're usually for brea… Donuts. Sure. Great. It'll be interesting," Chouji said, brightening up. "We'll find something to do with that. Your brother and sister are welcome too, of course. My house is just past the Academy, off the main street, the one with the weird-shaped streetlamp out front. Be there at seven."


	3. NejiTemari

Title: "Neji-Temari"  
Fandom: Naruto  
Characters: Neji/Temari  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Gaara's post-timeskip rank  
Word Count: 169  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

"You seem to be, mistakenly," Temari hissed, "Under the impression we are sharing the same bedroom. Just because we are married is no reason for you to be thinking that."

Neji managed not to snipe back the question of what would be an appropriate reason for them to stay in the same room. He wasn't even thinking of the same bed. "You can't be _surprised_ by an arranged marriage. You were the Kazekage's daughter and now you're his sister. I am the cousin of the head of the most powerful clan in Konoha. It's only natural."

"Do I look like a missing-nin? But there are other bloodline heirs, so no one ever said anything about children. Therefore, we are married by the letter of the law. I'd have thought that would have made you happy."

"What, you think I'm gay or something?"

"Well, I was considering it. But I don't care. Do what you want, have what lovers you want. I don't care." Temari slammed shut _her_ bedroom door.


	4. KibaNeji

Title: "Kiba-Neji"  
Fandom: Naruto  
Characters: Kiba/Neji  
Rating: PG-13  
Spoilers: none  
Word Count: 108  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

"Loosen up, will ya?"

"I have _dog breath_."

"Then maybe ya shouldn't have been kissin' me so hard."

"I smell like dog."

"Hey, ya don't have half the nose I do," huffed the Inuzuka boy.

"You smell and now so do I."

"Well, we were just—"

"And what did you mean earlier that you'd been wanting me for a long time? I thought you did everything on impulse—"

Kiba cut Neji off. "I can control my impulses. I've thought you were cute since I first saw ya at the Hyuuga compound, waitin' for Hinata. 'Course, gotta say, I thought ya were a girl at the time." 


	5. HinataNeji

Title: "Hinata-Neji"  
Fandom: Naruto  
Characters: Hinata/Neji  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Chuunin exams preliminaries, vaguely  
Word Count: 130  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

At the soft knock on the door, Neji shoved his ANBU mask under his pillow, a stupid gesture in a compound of Byakugan users. The door opened to reveal "Hinata-sama."

"Neji-niisan. I… I was wondering… if you'd like some tea."

Hinata was ghostly, formless, in a white kimono, which blended into her pale skin and eyes and the color of the porcelain teacup and the wall behind her.

He couldn't imagine how she had once been the incarnation of the main house to him. "Thank you, Hinata-sama."

"If there's anything you need…"

Neji glanced at a feather lying half-under the open scrolls on his desk. "Take that away," he said indifferently and finished his tea.

He wasn't surprised to see the feather braided into her purple hair the next day.


	6. KibaIno

Title: "Kiba-Ino"  
Fandom: Naruto  
Characters: Kiba/Ino  
Rating: PG-13  
Spoilers: none  
Word Count: 109  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

"Get back here!"

"As though any real man listens to his bitch."

"Oh, is that what you think? You're not sleeping on the couch tonight; you're lucky if I don't kick you and Akamaru through the village gates."

"Try it, pig girl."

"You're on, dog boy."

"Shikamaru was right, women are so troublesome," Kiba said in an imitation of his wife's teammate's drawl.

"Tsunade-sama was right, men are the real pigs."

"Don't say pigs like it's an insult when you are one."

"Bring it, bitch."

Akamaru whimpered under the porch at the crack of furniture. Did his master and his master's mate really have to do this every night? 


	7. SakuraShino

Title: "Sakura-Shino"  
Fandom: Naruto  
Characters: Shino/Sakura  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: Sakura's apprenticeship  
Word Count: 113  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

"I want your body."

Sakura was absolutely sure Shino's eyes widened and his mouth fell open, despite the sunglasses and the collar. It must have been a side effect of spending time with Kakashi.

"Not like that," she quickly corrected. "Shishou wants me to familiarize myself with the Aburame internal anatomy."

"Ah."

"So…"

"Yes."

"So… will you come by at eight tomorrow morning? Oh, this is awkward; I didn't mean to start things off that way," Sakura burst out.

"It's okay." Shino reached up to adjust his shades, but the kunoichi didn't know him well enough to know what that meant, if anything. "You can do anything with my body that you want." 


	8. ShikamaruGaara

Title: "Shikamaru-Gaara"  
Fandom: Naruto  
Characters: Shikamaru/Temari, Shikamaru/Gaara  
Rating: PG  
Spoilers: none  
Word Count: 134  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

"Women are so troublesome," Shikamaru groaned as Temari slammed the door behind him.

"Crybaby."

The Leaf-nin looked up. "Why are you calling me that?"

Gaara looked distinctly confused. "That is what Temari calls you, is it not?"

"It's not my name, you know."

"That is Nara Shikamaru."

"Um."

" Nara."

Shikamaru looked up.

"You can't sleep in the hallway. Come to my room."

He considered how much trouble it would be to walk back to his inn on the other side of the village in a sandstorm and followed Gaara.

"You can use the bed."

"Don't you want…"

"I don't sleep."

"Oh."

Gaara's bed was sandy, all the same. The Sand-nin kept on a singly lamp and his pen continued to scratch over paperwork all night. That wasn't why Shikamaru got no sleep that night.


	9. SasukeShikamaru

Title: "Sasuke-Shikamaru"  
Fandom: Naruto  
Characters: Sasuke, Shikamaru/Tayuya, Kakashi  
Rating: PG-13  
Spoilers: Sasuke retrieval arc, though it's AU for it  
Word Count: 177  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

"Let me go!"

Shikamaru, predictably, didn't bother to answer.

"You can't keep me!"

Shikamaru's shadow dragged behind him one unconscious prisoner and one complaining one. He was almost willing to reevaluate his stance on the troubles of women as he found he was wishing for Ino or even that Sound girl instead.

Shikamaru spoke once before they reached Leaf. "I hate you."

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

"Did I do it right?" Shikamaru asked Kakashi. "Should I ever be allowed to lead again? I completed the mission, but I failed my comrades." Chouji dead. Neji dead. Kiba dead. Lee dead. Naruto dead. "I completed the mission. I really am worse than trash."

Kakashi didn't answer.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Shikamaru visited Tayuya everyday. She refused to believe her comrades were dead until Shikamaru cried when he told her his were too.

She raged at him, at his comrades, at her comrades. She never cried. Shikamaru stopped feeling ashamed for his tears.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

He never visited Sasuke, but he watched him silently from afar.

It hadn't been worth it.

(a/n: I feel bad about having Shikamaru and Tayuya get married n what was supposed to be a Shikamaru/Sasuke fic. Because they did. I just omitted the scene. Shino was best man. I just really can't see romantic Shikamaru/Sasuke, because Shikamaru doesn't like Sasuke and not for UST reasons, for the same reasons I have, so I tend to side with him.) 


	10. SakuraShikamaru

Title: Shikamaru-Sakura  
Rating: PG  
Characters/Pairings: Sakura/Sasuke, Shikamaru/Sakura  
Warnings: none, hints of spoilers through Sasuke retrieval arc

"Please," she begged him and Sakura was a strong woman these days who shouldn't have been begging.

"Um." Shikamaru tried to think of response that wouldn't get him punched through a few walls. Maybe that was what she needed, but he sure didn't.

"For Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. It was always Sasuke. Why did women want to chain themselves to such disagreeable men? He never _wanted_ to understand women. What did anyone see in Sasuke to like?

"You're the most troublesome woman I know."

She laughed wetly through the tears. "Is that a proposal?"

"Yeah, I'll do it." Shikamaru wondered how he'd gotten talked into this again.


	11. InoTenten

Title: Ino-Tenten  
Rating: PG  
Characters/Pairings: Ino/Tenten  
Warnings: femslash  
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"This shade would look _wonderful_ on you! And it would go perfectly with the purple dress, which is yet another reason I'm favoring it over the others."

Tenten held out the handful of bags for the lipstick to be dropped inside.

"You'll wear this one."

"Yes."

"You won't mysteriously loose the dress between your apartment and the Hokage's Tower and show up in your normal clothes, which have gotten less and less feminine over the years."

"No."

"Because you'll be getting dressed at _my_ apartment."

"Ino—"

"And I'll do your hair. You can't wear it the same every day of your life."

"Ino—"

"Babe, you're beautiful. And everyone should know it."


	12. HinataShikamaru

Title: Hinata-Shikamaru  
Rating: PG  
Characters/Pairings: Shikamaru/Hinata, Hinata/Naruto  
Warnings: none  
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Will you marry me?"

Hinata shared at Shikamaru on one knee like a deer at a wolf. "W-w-what?" she finally forced the sound out.

"You're female and you're not troublesome or overbearing. If we got married, no one would bother us about it again."

"But… but…"

"Do you not want to? Aw man, I went all the way to the tourist stands to get the ring and everything."

Hinata wanted to laugh hysterically, if she did those things out loud. It was nothing like she had ever imaged this to be, not just the _not Naruto_ part.

_I have to make the decision right now whether this is serious or not. Shikamaru: intelligent, interesting, of a respected clan with no current connections of the Hyuuga. Unassertive--he would never try to rest control of the clan. Strategist. In my… league. Proposing, in fact._

"Get the approval of your clan and I will inform mine."

Shikamaru looked at the ring. "Will I have to do this again? Troublesome."

She reached over and took the ring from his fingers, though did not put it on hers.


	13. HinataIno

Title: Hinata-Ino  
Rating: PG  
Characters/Pairings: Hinata/Ino  
Warnings: femslash  
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Hinata considered the possibility of being bi. She started with the basic assumption that if she were ever to fall for a woman, it would be Ino. Ino was beautiful and graceful and confident and Hinata would have been perfectly content to listen to her talk for hours, occasionally stealing glances at the clear blue color of her eyes.

But was it a romantic attraction? Hinata tried to imagine kissing Ino. Blushing furiously, leaning in and kissing her with no warning.

Hinata had no idea what would happen after that, other than rejection, though she knew Ino liked girls just fine, so that wouldn't be the problem.

She felt embarrassed, but also warm and fluttery from the thought. Maybe, just maybe…


	14. HinataGaara

Title: Hinata-Gaara  
Rating: PG  
Characters/Pairings: Hinata/Gaara, mention of Temari and Kankurou  
Warnings: spoilers for Gaara's post-timeskip rank  
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

"Anou… Gaara-kun…"

Temari's voice in his head said _Be sociable._

"Yes?"

She blushed and put a box on the Kazekage's desk. "I made you lunch."

_Thank your wife,_ the Kankurou voice prodded him.

"Thank you." Gaara opened the box and stared at the contents. "What is it?"

"Aa… aa…"

_You've scared her. _

_Explain,_ Temari poked him.

"I don't know what these foods are. Tell me." She continued to cringe. "Please."

"Anou… these are cold sesame noodles. I thought, since it was hot out. These are picked vegetables; we eat them a lot in Konoha… These are crystallized orange slices in yogurt, it's sort of like a candy…"

Gaara didn't need more prompting to say "Thank you, Hinata."


	15. HinataTemari

Title: Hinata-Temari  
Rating: PG  
Characters/Pairings: Hinata/Temari, mention of Kankurou and Gaara  
Warnings: femslash  
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Temari moved in and kissed Hinata. "Don't cry," she said, whipping a tear away with her thumb. "It's annoying," she added after a minute, just in case she sounded too soft.

"Didn't you… Aren't you always talking about your gay brothers?"

She scrunched hr nose. "I said earlier, I hate everyone equally. And maybe I said that a little too loudly."

"Even you are…"

"So stop crying. There's nothing to cry about. And it's stupid and solves nothing."

"If I were to say I liked you…"

"You'd be a fool." A softer expression appeared on Temari's face for just a second. "Eh, but you can stick around with me. You're well-meaning enough and not stupid and not a bad sort when you actually do something. And pretty as anything," she added before kissing Hinata again against the gentle backdrop of the woods.


	16. ChoujiTenten

Title: Chouji-Tenten  
Rating: PG  
Characters/Pairings: Chouji/Tenten  
Warnings: bit of blood  
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

He rolled at her, her barrage of weapons bouncing off the moving surface of his attack. Tenten leapt nimbly out of the way.

Chouji stopped his roll just short of a tree and turned around to barrel at her again. She summoned another scroll-worth of weapons to slow him down while she took to the trees.

His roll faltered and he collapsed to the ground. The kunoichi turned to look at her exhausted companion, but what she saw was blood.

"You idiot!" she yelled at him (herself). "The weapons bouncing off you are still sharp, still hit you."

"Sorry Tenten. Thank you for training with me," he smiled so sweetly, even though a scratch on his cheek was bleeding into his mouth.

"Idiot." She leaned over to kiss him.


	17. TemariKankurou

Title: Temari-Kankurou  
Rating: PG-13  
Characters/Pairings: Temari/Kankurou, mention of Karura and Gaara  
Warnings: incest  
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Kankurou was not surprised to find Temari at the graves. No one else ever went there, so he knew whose silhouette it was as he saw it.

"Had something to say to Karura's grave, Temari?" She hadn't been cleaning the still sand-covered stone, that was for sure.

"I don't know why we are trying to get the monster to call us his siblings. We're not a family."

He wanted to kiss her softly and comfortingly, but that wasn't in their vocabulary, so he kissed her bruisingly and she bit back.

Kankurou didn't bother to wipe the blood from his lip, so it dripped down onto their mother's grave.


	18. SasukeHinata

Just for clarification: Sasuke/Hinata--Kuchinawa (蛇), Hankai (半回), Miko (ミコ); Hanabi/Neji--Hayuugu (葉夕暮)

Title: Sasuke-Hinata  
Rating: PG-13  
Characters/Pairings: Sasuke/Hinata, Neji/Hanabi, hint of Neji/Hinata  
Warnings: character death, incest  
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. 

Hinata bore their first child exactly nine months after the wedding, attending perfectly to her duty. Unlike with Byakugan users, the Sharingan was not fully developed at birth, leaving her son with black proto-Sharingan; or at least what Sasuke was fairly certain were proto-Sharingan. Their daughter born a year later had neither pupil distinguishable from iris, though one eye was black and the other white. Hinata was not sure if her husband was disappointed or angry, even after two years of marriage.

She bore one more child, a girl, with soon-to-be Sharingan eyes. She never got to see that her baby was perfect or if Sasuke was pleased before her all-seeing eyes closed for the last time.

Sasuke needed to remarry. He had to single-handedly revive what had been one of the larger clans in the village, three children were not enough. He didn't.

He had never loved Hinata. She had been politically and genetically the best match. They had not been friends. She had been… tolerable. All the other girls his age were not or were already married or were bad matches for passing on the Sharingan anyways.

mmmmmmmmmmm

The head of the Hyuuga clan and her consort had one child. No one commented too much after that if Hanabi and Neji did not share the same quarters.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Neji tried not to hate Sasuke when he saw him at the Hokage tower. He tried not to hate Miko when she came by the Hyuuga complex to take her older sister home. He occasionally succeeded.

mmmmmmmmmm

When people called Hankai abomination, she ignored them. Kuchinawa beat them up for their insult to their clan and their mother's clan. Miko befriended them and then reintroduced them to her older sister. She was always the subtlest of them.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

Hayuugu killed Hankai. The blood was all over her white Hyuuga robe, staining it to match the Uchiha fan on Hankai's. She screamed and screamed and screamed. She'd had to.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Sasuke didn't know what to say when Kuchinawa and Miko announced their proposed marriage to increase the possibility of offspring will working Sharingan. Even more than wishing he had managed to impart to them what one does not marry their sibling, he wished he had shown them some hint that marriage could have something to do with love.


	19. SakuraKankurou

Title: "Sakura-Kankurou"  
Spoilers: vague post-timeskip Sakura and Gaara's stantions in life  
Warnings: implied violence  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

So even Kankurou wasn't immune to the idea of being the dashing hero.

He'd get the lookout with Kuroari easily enough but more importantly quietly. He'd pick off any outlying missing-nin with his other puppets, stealthy so they wouldn't shout the word. The main attention would be in the main tent, so he'd send a clone in there. By the time they'd figured out the clone, he'd be behind them, where he'd been controlling the puppets from all along, and then he'd release his main arsenal.

Sakura would look up at him admiringly from where she was tied up. "You saved me."

He wouldn't have anything to say to that, he'd just flash her a charming, rugged smile that said _All in a day's work._

It was quiet, Kankurou decided, too quiet. An ambush? But he was already to the missing-nin's camp and there was no sound, no movement, except…

"Oh, you came to get me? Thank you. I dealt with the missing-nin, don't worry. Would you mention to the Kazekage when you next see him to send a hunter-nin team to deal with the bodies?"

As the blood- and guts-covered pink-haired woman strode off blithely, Kankurou thought, _That is one distressing damsel._


	20. LeeKankurou

Title: "Lee-Kankurou"  
Disclaimer: Naruto not mine

"Wild horses couldn't make me leave you. They couldn't drag me away." The spandexed ninja struck a pose with a majestic sunset appearing behind him and his thumb in the air.

Kankurou had seen wild horses before. Herds of them deep in the desert, stampeding at Gaara's scent. Wild horses could do whatever they wanted, like a sandstorm or that avalanche thing he had heard of.

Did he have any idea of what he was getting into with Kankurou? But his teeth flashed brightly in time with the clap of a wave breaking to silhouette him.

At Lee's display, Kankurou considered that the forces of nature could not be that much of a problem for someone who could make water in the desert.

"Yeah, I'm not going anywhere either, love." 


	21. SasukeKiba

**Chapter Twenty-One: Sasuke-Kiba**

The amount of effort that had gone into rescuing Sasuke, it wasn't fair that he would walk back into the village. No, what wasn't fair was that he had to do it on _his_ turn on gate duty.

Kiba cursed and ground his teeth at this being his luck. Akamaru just growled a little. Kiba sniffed and cussed louder. Sasuke was greeted back to Konohagakure with, "Fuck Uchiha do you stink. Bathed in the last week?"

Sasuke looked down at the cracking dried blood on his hands like he was just noticing it was there. "No."

Deadpan ice bastard as ever. "I should fuckin' arrest you. In fact, no should. The ANBU should be dragging your carcass into the Hokage's office right now."

"What'll that old lady do? Where's Naruto?"

"Sasuke…" Kiba hadn't expected to pity the bastard. Like a rabid dog. Poor baby who needed to be held and stroked and comforted but really needed to be put down.

"I killed Itachi. Where's Naruto?" Sasuke's voice was steady and emotionless but Kiba was used to listening for sounds humans couldn't hear, so he got the growing confusion in those glassy eyes.

Akamaru slunk over to lick at a cleaner bit of Sasuke's ankle. Kiba agreed with the sentiment. "Sasuke, Tsunade's not Hokage. She died ten years ago. And Naruto died more than that."


	22. NarutoHinata

Title: Nartuo-Hinata  
Characters/Pairing: Hinata/Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura  
Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.  
Summary: It's taken Hinata a really time to confess.

"Naruto-kun… I… I…" Hinata stuttered as she had done countless times before. She was going to say it finally. She was. "I love you."

"WHAT? SPEAK UP HINATA! I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" the eighty-three-year-old former Hokage yelled.

"Shut up!" yelled Sasuke from the room next door in the nursing home.

"He's been like this since he came out of retirement to beat those 'New Otokagakure' kids ten years ago!" Sakura yelled through another wall.

"WHAT IS EVERYONE SAYING?" he bellowed from his bed.

"I… I… I love you!"

"WHAT? HEY, HINATA, WHY ARE YOU CRYING? SASUKE-BASTARD, DID YOU SAY SOMETHING TO HER?!"


	23. ShikamaruTenten

Title: "Shikamaru-Tenten"  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto  
Characters: Shikamaru/Tenten, Ino, Chouji, Neji, Guy, Lee

After a particularly exhausting game of Frisbee compounded by the water being too deep to stand in and chakra walking being considered cheating, Tenten flopped next to Shikamaru on the shore. Ino was still coughing water with Chouji pounding her back after nearly drowning while trying to mind-switch with Neji, and Guy and Lee were challenging each other to climb the cliff to get the Frisbee down from where Tenten had last gotten it stuck.

"You're the one who suggested coming out here but you're just lying around and not even getting in the water."

"I am enjoying myself."

"You're enjoying everyone else tiring themselves out so they'll trouble you less later."

"I could have thought of places that took less effort to get to than this."

"Then why?"

The lazy ninja cast her a glance out of his half-closed eyes. "I just wanted to see you in a swimsuit."


	24. SasukeTemari

Title: "Sasuke-Temari"  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto  
Characters: Sasuke/Temari

"Your Hokage is letting you rebuild your clan as long as it's very far away from him. My brother needed to seal an alliance. That is all." Temari closed the door after her with an overly strong slam.

Sasuke was at a loss. He was aware how bitchy most of the women around him were but it was never directed at him. Having his new wife not fawning over him should have been a relief… instead of vaguely annoying.

* * *

The first time she came home from a mission late, he realized she had been in the hospital and hadn't bothered to send him a message.

"What does it matter to you?" she snapped back.

He was at a loss. Going and seeing her there would be a meaningless social obligation. It hadn't been her turn to watch Makoto because he wasn't allowed to take missions outside the village.

"It doesn't."

* * *

The second time she was in the hospital for weeks he found her there and told her Makoto was old enough to be asking for her and Kaguya would be soon.

She started to say something about "No real ninja growing up—" when he cut her off to yell about every scrap of guilt she had about her brother. His own parents aside, but that wouldn't have had the effect.

She hit him. He was an S-class ninja but damn she hit hard and through the wall. And put a note he was to be alerted into her file.

* * *

They both ended up stuck in the hospital together with Shiku after a particularly bad B-class mission he'd been on. Temari paced a lot. Sasuke stared broodingly into space as was his want. Their older children were in and out of the hospital room at odd times.

Sometimes they'd both held his hand at the same time.

* * *

The hospital warned Temari recuperating at home meant resting and she wasn't as young as she used to be. It was true, all the injuries accumulated in years as a ninja making her sore and rickety.

She would attempt to put Sasuke through a wall for mentioning any of this, of course. While he'd normally make a spar out of her violent behavior that would defeat the purpose and keep her in the house longer.

"It's been twenty-five years," he yelled back. "And people say I'm the emotionally dense one."

For once in her life Temari had nothing to say back to that.


	25. SakuraHinata

**Chapter Twenty-Five: Sakura-Hinata**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.  
Characters/Pairing: one-sided Hinata/Sakura, mention of one-sided Hinata/Naruto  
Rating: PG

Hinata had known her reaction to people like Naruto who were brave and determined to succeed no matter what. But now Naruto was gone and everyone in the village talked about the Hokage's apprentice. The Hokage's apprentice who had learned to make mountains crumble and fight off the very claws of death.

It was just Sakura. Sakura from Academy who'd always been fussing with her hair ribbons and messing up her techniques even though she knew the theory by heart. Sakura who now had steel in her jade eyes and gloves made for hard work and knee-high boots for no reason other than being awesome.

No one noticed anything of Hinata blushing and stammering even if it was at another girl. Just Hinata being herself as she used her Byakugan in the hospital. Just Hinata ducking into a linen closet because Sakura and Ino went by gossiping. Why did "just Hinata" have to be this weak, fearful person?

She wanted to be like Naruto. She wanted to be like Sakura and have her strength make her beautiful in a way her primping never had. She wanted Sakura but not in a way she could ever imagine acting on. Hinata could hardly image her as her friend or maybe stealing a kiss but not at all as her girlfriend or her consort lover as she led the Hyuuga clan.

Oh she wasn't good at anything. A useless Hyuuga compared to her cousin or sister. Nothing of a ninja compared to any of her classmates. Least of all Naruto. Least of all Sakura.

"Hey Hinata!"

She froze up. She willed herself to move. To breathe. Anything. "Sa-Sakura."

"Hey, congratulations on making chuunin."

"Oh. Yeah," she said at a whisper. "Thank you."

"Come on." Sakura threw her arm over her shoulder. "Ino and Tenten and I are taking you out for drinks. Let's go."


	26. TentenTemari

**Chapter Twenty-Six: Tenten-Temari**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.  
Characters/Pairing: Tenten/Temari  
Rating: PG-13

Allies now or not, a Konoha-nin camping out before the gates of Suna was a strange occurrence, if not one immediately taken as an act of aggression. The young woman in question was doing nothing threatening. She sat on the sand in a meditative pose with eyes closed.

When she'd ignored the first gate guards sent out to meet her, the Kazekage's sister herself went next. She knew the girl, if their contact had been brief during the chuunin exams.

"Tenten."

Her brown eyes fluttered open though she had obviously heard her coming. "Make me your apprentice." She bowed her head till her forehead protector brushed the sand.

"I'm a wind jutsu user and summoner, not a weapons master," Temari countered. "I can defeat you but not teach you unless you intend to change your specialty."

"You can defeat me. I have much to learn from you."

Temari wasn't terribly inclined to resist. She seemed like a nice girl and a ninja of her position had few friends. She seemed awfully young but could only be a year or two younger and that was absurd because they were both ninja. "If your Hokage has given you leave to run border patrols for the Land of Wind, then I will fight you and teach you things I know."

"Thank you, Temari-sensei."

* * *

"They call us the Ladies of Yin and Yang," Tenten told her as they shared a bottle of the drink of the desert, water. The first of their patrol gave them as much room as they could, even though they were no longer being death through the air.

"You stain worse." Tenten trading out her pink for more desert appropriate white had mostly been replaced by blood red anyway. Temari wore black under her grimy burnoose throw-over because she knew how hard it was to get blood and bodily fluids out without water.

"You made most of the mess."

"I got more of them. I still win."

Temari looked up from the dunes at the field of stars. They had never had constellations in the Land of Wind and she'd never known about it until Tenten had started looking for them and failing. There were too many stars to be making pictures in the clear sky of the desert. Might as well give names to shapes of grains in the sand.

Temari felt weight before heat shifting toward her even though the night was cooling off rapidly. "Guess I owe you a forfeit then."

Her chapped but wet lips were hot in a way that reminded Temari of the jungle far away. "I guess you do."

Tenten had her hair down already and it tickled her neck. "I'll beat you tomorrow."


	27. TemariGaara

Title: Temari-Gaara  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.  
Characters/Pairing: Temari/Gaara, Fourth Kazekage/Karura, Kankurou  
Rating: PG-13  
Warnings: incest, kissing, off-screen canon character death

It is a little known fact that neither of Gaara's parents named him; his sister did. She as three but a bright three, too young to do more than play with kunai but born to be a ninja all the same.

She hadn't been thinking of names beforehand, since Mommy would give one to the new baby (she hoped) sister. But then Mommy was dead and Daddy had gone away and the baby and Kankurou were crying. Let it be said that while he was never a good man, the Fourth Kazekage was once a different man and had loved his wife and had not meant things to happen how they did.

She could pick up Kankurou, though he could walk on his own now, and the baby was lighter, so holding him was easy. She knew a baby must have its name spoken to the desert or it would have no soul. Mommy was gone; Daddy was gone.

She only knew so many names in her short life, but her storybooks had been respectable ones of ancient ninjas and heroes. She named him after her favorite and knew not the cruelty in the name of the warrior of the lonely winds, 'self-loving carnage,' 'demon who cares only for himself.'

She said to the baby and the desert, "I am Temari and he is Gaara."

* * *

It is a little known fact that neither Temari nor Gaara can kill the other. So little known in fact that neither of them is aware of it.

They feared each other, when they were genin and not a little girl and a baby. She feared him for his power and his cruelty. She was trained to be capable of killing him, but didn't believe she'd be strong enough. She might have been wrong.

He feared her rejection and that one day she might be another assassin sent after him. He feared that she would die someday and that would be the end of his sanity, though his heart was long since dead. He was pretty much right about that.

But they couldn't, even if they wanted to, no more than they could fly without ninjutsu or make water from sand. True names have power, and though no one else could use this power against them, the price they pay is that Temari and Gaara could not kill each other.

* * *

"Temari," he says to her, never 'sister,' just as her reply is "Gaara" and not 'Kazekage.'

They kiss and it is neither sweet nor bitter, but chapped and a bit grainy. They are of the endless sand, tough and insular, where dune and rock stretch from horizon to horizon, and the sky is an unbroken bowl of blue.

She didn't know as a little girl that when she said his name to the wind and the desert it saw her standing not in the place of a mother but a wife. As a woman, she wouldn't change it if she could. Temari and Gaara are bound together by name and soul and love and always have been.


	28. ShinoIno

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Shino-Ino

Rating: PG  
Warnings: none  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

"That shirt is fetching."

His mom had told him to be sociable. His dad had agreed that these were his comrades and to be treated well as a result.

"What's wrong with it? Can you see through it? Teacher, Aburame's a pervert!"

That was entirely unexpected. "Can I not give you a compliment? The pattern on that shirt is pleasantly attractive." Female appreciated such things, did they not?

"It's a plain white shirt!"

She swept her hands down her chest and disrupted the pattern and that was when Shino realized the color was not in the fibers of her shirt but on it. Yamanaka Flower Shop, of course.

"My apologies. I saw the pollen stuck to your clothing."

"What pollen? Do I have weird stains somewhere? I don't see anything."

One of the bugs nipped at his superior oblique ocular muscle. He had not yet learned all of what he should and should not be speaking about, so he told her, "I apologize. I was seeing outside the human visible light range."

"Really?" Ino leaned in and looked interested. "We learned about that in science. What does it look like?"

"Well…" he said, standard language for those outside the clan proving inadequate, "there are _arkuth_ clouds from your right shoulder and down your side. Your neck and upper chest are spotted heavily with _sud_ and _murim_, which really brings out your eyes…"


	29. HinataChouji

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Hinata-Chouji

Rating: PG  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

She had waited and waited and the world sped on around her. Everyone else had left and now only she had been left behind. And he was the other left over.

"I don't want to play pair-the-spare with you, no, but if otherwise your family would marry you off to someone you don't know or don't like, I'll do it."

Naruto had long since married, and Kiba and Neji and Shikamaru and all their friends. The only people who wanted to marry Akimichi were graduates of culinary schools. He was a desperate last move, he knew she was thinking. She had missed her chance so many times.

"I…" she said quietly and waveringly as always. "I like you."

"What?" Chouji found himself sounding more surprised at this than at her proposal of marriage. He thought he'd had her figured out.

Hinata blushed harder and looked like she wanted to hide further behind her hair, but she had already started this conversation and was determined to see it through. "You're nice."

Chouji saw himself through her eyes differently for a second, just as a test of her new words. Nice, safe, unthreatening, undemanding. Her age, of a good family, of a happy family which probably appealed to her even more.

"Oh. Well that's a different matter." Everyone else had married, so why not him before now? Interest from another party, certainly, but maybe nice had been what he had been looking for too. "Alright. Let's try that."

So they did.


	30. NarutoChouji

**Chapter Thirty: Naruto-Chouji**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

"Damn that Ero-sennin, stealing the rest of my money." Naruto shook his frog purse upside-down more, just in case more than lint came out.

"Just pay us back next time, Naruto-kun," Ayame said lightly. You could give credit to your regulars.

"Thanks, neesan. Put it on my tab. Or better yet, put it on Chouji's tab. He's the one who told the pervert where I was on my day off."

A few months later, Chouji looked forlorn at putting down only half the money for his bill. He'd been suing those pills again; Ayame sniffed critically. She wasn't going to regret serving him twice what he'd ordered. He'd eaten it all, after all.

"Put it on my tab. Or better yet, put it on Naruto's tab. If he hadn't messed up last mission and then gotten the Godaime mad at him, I'd have gotten full pay."

Years later had Ayame the owner of Ichiraku Ramen and a direct line to their bank accounts. As each weary ninja wandered in after missions and ate like a bird, that is to say most of their body weight, every other week, it became normal to hear "Put it on Chouji's tab" and "Put it on Naruto's tab."

They hadn't been paying attention to the fact that being able to charge them on credit meant she knew they had a joint bank account. She waited for the day they'd tell her.


	31. ShinoNeji

Title: Shino-Neji  
Rating: PG  
Warnings: voyeurism  
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**  
**

Shino knew he was being flaunted for his inappropriateness as a lover. Inappropriate, but in a way that Neji's clan wouldn't stop him for. He wasn't a girl who might get pregnant and get in the way of whatever marriage the clan had planned for him. He was from a good family, not under any suspicion of being a spy for some other nation.

Someone else would even have been able to fool himself that Neji was being discrete, sneaky even, about their rendezvous. They would have had to have been deeply, willfully blind to the implications of the Hyuuga's powers, but Shino's fellows had always astounded him with that capacity.

The Hyuugas seemed like the sort of people who should have been horribly repressed. Instead, they had a shamelessness that came of knowing everyone knew, but affecting an exaggerated sense of privacy by never speaking on that knowledge. He'd seen Hyuuga knock before opening doors in their own clan house of all things.

Maybe that was another reason Neji had chosen him to relieve stress with. His own clan's houses had swarms everywhere, everyone's little eyes everywhere. His bugs could smell shifts in pheromones in human sweat. They told him his teammate blushed when she saw him at training in the morning. The ones spread up across the Hyuuga compound told him she slept fitfully right now.

Some distant cousin of Neji's he'd never been introduced to sniffed. Maybe because he was looking towards Neji and him. Maybe not. Who cared? Not Shino. He was just the good-for-nothing boyfriend.


End file.
